Confrontation! (The Depressing and Dark Kind!)
by Monologues and Touchdowns
Summary: "That scene in the movie where they all freaked out at each other could have been much darker..." -Me, after watching the movie


**Okay, so I wrote this a long time ago, around when the actual movie came out, and I dunno, I guess I was being pretty angsty, and I was like, Hey, this scene could have been much darker and more dramatic, and then I was like, Hey, I could do that, so I did. Plus,** **realistically** **, the parents on the island would probably have been much worse than what was shown in the movie, but it was Disney, so they couldn't do much about that.**

 **I don't know why I spent my time rewriting eight pages worth of a Disney Channel movie (that honestly didn't impress me very much), but I did. (Again, I was pretty angsty at the time.) So here it is. I mean, I don't think it's all that bad, but... I have no idea why I wrote it. Anyway, here it is for all the world to see.**

 **Hooray.**

"Don't do this, Chad."

"What?" Chad said in disbelief. "They were raised by their parents, Ben. What do you think villains teach their kids, huh? Kindness? Fair play? No way, okay?" He looked pointedly at Mal. "You stole another girl's boyfriend." Mal's jaw dropped in indignation.

Ben tried to stop him, but Chad stepped around him and pointed at Jay. "You enjoy hurting people." Jay looked down. "And you," Chad spat, now pointing at Evie. "You're nothing but a gold digger, and a cheater." The prince looked smug, proud of his insult. He glanced back at the crowd behind him and smirked.

Evie stepped forward, holding her mirror, and said, with a fake sweetness, "Mirror, mirror, in my hand. Who's the biggest jerk in the land?" She shoved the mirror in front of Chad, showing a reflection of himself.

"What?" Chad said incredulously. "Come on." He smacked the mirror out of Evie's hand, and Jay immediately leaped forward and grabbed Chad by the front of his blue suit.

He yelled at Chad to stay away from Evie, who pulled out a bottle of perfume and reached over Jay's shoulder, spraying it in the prince's face. Chad immediately fell limp and toppled backwards. Doug gasped and caught him before he hit the ground. "Chad!" Audrey exclaimed in horror. She and Mulan bent over him in worry while Ben pulled Jay away from the unconscious prince.

Evie grabbed Mal's hand and pulled her back, saying, "Come on, Mal." Carlos slowly turned to follow them, chocolate still caking his lips. Jay backed away as well.

"Guys!" Ben called after them. "Mal! Wait!"

Against her better judgement, Mal ripped her hand out of Evie's. "What, Ben?" she shouted over her shoulder, exasperated. Evie tried to take her hand again, but Mal wouldn't let her. Jay and Carlos joined Evie behind Mal as she turned and confronted Ben. "What do you want?" Mal repeated.

Aurora's mother stuck out her chin pompously. Before Ben could say anything, she put her hands on her hips and said, self righteously, "Do you see what I mean? They are evil! They should never have come here in the first place!" Mal spun on her heel and glared at the queen.

Ben saw the defiant gleam in Mal's eyes and tried to defuse the situation. "Wait, Mal, don't-"

Mal ignored him. "Oh, poor Queen Leah," she snarled. Ben almost backed away at the look of malice in her eyes. "She missed her daughter's first steps. Poor, poor Queen Leah."

The queen drew herself up arrogantly. "Are you mocking my pain, _Mal_?" She said the name like it tasted bad in her mouth. "You have no idea what it was like to live knowing that your daughter is somewhere out there, with no clue who her mother or father is and-"

"Oh, I think we have some idea!" Mal shouted. Her clenched fists trembled at her sides. Evie put a hand on Mal's shoulder before she attacked someone.

"Queen," she said, much calmer than Mal. "I think you shouldn't talk about things which you don't understand."

Queen Leah nodded sarcastically. "Oh, yes, that's right. I have no _idea_ what it feels like. It isn't like my _daughter_ was kidnapped by that wicked child's _mother_! I didn't see her until she was a grown woman!" Aurora nodded in agreement and sneered at Mal.

"No, you don't get it!" Jay retorted. "Have you ever lived on that island?"

Carlos looked at him warningly and muttered under his breath, "Remember that pact we made? The one where we swore not to talk about our lives on the island?" He shifted Dude in his arms. "You're dangerously close to breaking that."

Evie nodded subtly in agreement, motioning for Jay to stay quiet.

Mal, on the other hand, became more incensed. "Why shouldn't they know?" she turned and asked her friends angrily. "Why shouldn't they know what it was like on the island?"

"Because we made a promise we wouldn't tell them!" Evie hissed. "Don't you remember?"

"Oh, I remember," Mal said. "But why should we let them treat us like this? They don't know what it was like!" Her voice dripped with venom.

Evie might have been able to calm Mal down in time if Queen Leah hadn't chimed in at that moment. "Poor little Mal. Even your name is wicked. _Mal_ icious? _Mal_ eficent? Really? Is that the best your mother could come up with?" She laughed scorningly. "Do you really expect us to feel _sorry_ for you?"

Mal's back stiffened. Her eyes glowed with anger. She turned slowly and lifted her chin defiantly. "What was your childhood like, Aurora?"

Aurora looked surprised to be included in the conversation. "Excuse me?"

"What was your childhood like?" Mal repeated. Aurora thought for a few seconds, and Mal sighed in impatience. "Come on, it isn't a difficult question."

"Well," Aurora started. "I suppose it was pretty peaceful. There were all these birds that would sing with me, and the fairies were wonderful. They were always arguing about what to make for dinner and-"

"There!" Mal gestured violently. "She had a happy childhood. She had _birds_ and _fairies_ and a _prince_." She made her words blatantly sarcastic.

Evie had finally given up on calming her friend down and put her hands on her hips. "She had someone there to see her first steps and hear her first words, even if it wasn't you, Queen Leah." Her calm words had an uncharacteristic bite to them.

Mal met Ben's gaze, stubbornly ignoring his subtle messages to stop. "When Jay took his first steps, do you know what his father did? He sent him out on the street. 'Now you can finally be of use,' he said. 'Go steal us some bread. Go steal a lamp. It might be the one this time.'" Jay looked uncomfortable as Mal talked. "No one cared that he was growing up, or talking, or walking. The only thing that mattered was finding another magic lamp.

"And Carlos?" Carlos flinched at the mention of his name. Mal continued, "The first things that were drilled into his head were how evil dogs were. His first words were, 'I hate dogs,' because that was all his mother cared to teach him. He didn't learn anything else from her, and she doesn't look to change that any time soon."

As Mal talked, the faces of the crowd were slowly changing. Ben's expression was one of pity. Doug looked mortified, Audrey was just surprised and a little scared. Belle held on to Adam's arm tightly, and the King looked extremely uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

Queen Leah still remained unrepentant. "That's no surprise," she said, but there was tension in her voice that hadn't been there before. "Cruella never did strike me as an intelligent woman. Anyway, it didn't seem to affect him too much, did it? He seems happy with that mongrel in his arms. And Jafar- well, he only ever wanted money."

Now Carlos was getting angry, but he tried to restrain it, hugging Dude close to his chest. Mal, on the other hand, raised her voice. "Does that make it right? Evie. You say that she's a gold digger. A cheater." She directed these words at Chad, who had finally woken up. His handsome face was twisted in confusion. "But Evie is brilliant. She's good at math and she reads faster than anyone I've seen. None of you know that, do you? Because _her_ mother was too busy looking at her own reflection. The only thing her mother ever told her was that brains get you nowhere. Beauty is the only thing that matters. The only way to become even remotely successful in any way is to seduce and marry a prince. What kind of twisted advice is that?

"And my mother?" Mal's voice cracked. There were tears welling in the corners of her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to wipe them away, for fear of showing weakness. She made eye contact with Ben and immediately looked away. His look of sympathy and sadness was too much for her to handle at the moment.

Evie noticed the thickness in her voice and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Mal's mother was-" She paused to find the right word. "Maleficent was the worst of all. While our parents neglected us, Maleficent-" She stopped speaking momentarily to swallow a lump in her throat.

Carlos took Evie's hand. "Maleficent never left her alone. Mal didn't go to school, she didn't make friends, she didn't have anyone to talk to. For over ten years, Maleficent kept her in the castle and drilled her mantras into her head. The only thing Mal knew as a child was how to be evil, and cruel, and ruthless, just like her mother told her."

Jay crossed his arms. "She finally managed to get out of the castle one night, where she met us. She had already been taught who we were, but we were enemies to her. Anyone and everyone was someone to be wary of. It took us over five years to convince her to trust us."

Mal was finally able to speak again. Her back was rigidly straight, her shoulders thrust back defiantly. "And when we were finally able to trust one another, when we were finally able to convince our parents to let us talk to each other without being threatened with-" She hesitated. "Without being threatened, what do you do? You bring us here, where the greatest magical artifacts in the world are kept, where there is a _museum_ stuffed with the most powerful weapons and artifacts that defeated our parents. Why do you think our parents agreed to let us come here?"

Ben finally broke the trance he had been in. "You said you were threatened? By your parents?"

Mal laughed bitterly. "You see? You don't even have a concept of what that would be like." She noticed Queen Leah, who was looking down. "Missed your child's first steps," she muttered. "You are the one who has no idea, Queen Leah." The queen's head jerked up when Mal said her name. She tried to say something, but Ben cut her off.

"You were threatened?" he said again.

Jay rolled his eyes. "Are you really still stuck on this? Yes, we were threatened. And yes, they carried out those threats. Consistently." He jerked up his shirt, revealing a long, smooth scar on his side. "Happy?" There was a round of gasps of horror. Carlos looked extremely uncomfortable now. He hugged Dude tightly.

"Did they-" Ben ripped his eyes away from Jay's scars. They roamed around the group, settling on Mal in particular. "Were you all- hurt- like that?"

Carlos and Evie glanced at each other. After a few moments, Carlos set Dude on the ground and pulled off his jacket. He shrugged off his vest and pulled up his shirt to reveal shorter, jagged scars on his back and stomach. "She- she made-" He couldn't say it outright. "Dogs _are_ evil on the island," he finally said quietly. "And Evie- she wasn't hurt in the same way. Her mother needed her to stay beautiful." Evie's fingers tightened around her mirror and she gritted her teeth at the memory of what had happened to her as a child.

"Mal?" Ben asked softly.

Mal's head jerked up, as if she was waking from a trance. "Oh, you want me to show my battle scars now?" she asked. "Fine." She yanked off her jacket and threw it on the ground. Evie stooped to pick it up and backed into Jay, who was watching Mal warily.

He looked worried as she rolled up her sleeves. "I don't like this, Evie," he said in a low voice. "She's never even shown us before. Why would she now?"

Before Evie could reply, Mal finished rolling up her sleeves to her elbows. She held out her left arm. The crowd leaned forward collectively. A tense silence.

"There's nothing there!" Aurora said. "This is all a lie! You're probably just-"

Mal flicked her wrist offhandedly, and Aurora's mouth snapped shut. She made muffled noises, but her mouth wouldn't open. "Aurora!" Queen Leah cried. She tried to calm the panicking princess.

"It's about time she finally stopped talking," Mal said. As Ben stepped a little closer, Mal slowly waved her hand over her arm. Her eyes began to glow bright green, like her mother's. Belle and Adam recognized this, and shouted to Ben to move back, but he didn't listen. For some reason, despite all her anger, he wasn't afraid of her. He was strangely confident that she wouldn't hurt him.

Her eyes flashed a brighter green for a few seconds, then it died down to their usual clear blue. She lifted her forearm again, but it was no longer its normal smooth whiteness. Jagged gashes marked up and down her arm. Her other hand had it as well, slightly raised skin in the shape of large, pointed teeth.

"Mal," Ben said, horrified. "What happened?"

Mal studied her arms passively, like she was used to seeing it, and didn't respond. Evie peeked over Mal's shoulder to see what was happening. Her eyes fell on the scars, and she shrieked and stumbled back.

"What?" Carlos and Jay asked simultaneously. They stepped up beside Mal to see her arms. Jay's eyes widened and he muttered a few curse words under his breath. Carlos sucked in a huge breath of air, followed by most of the crowd surrounding them. Audrey let out an earsplitting shriek. Doug retched and moved back. Mulan's eyes hardened.

"What is it?" Ben asked, concerned but still completely lost. "What happened?" Almost against their will, Belle and Adam moved forward to get a better look. Belle had her face half hidden behind Adam's large arm. Evie stood still in shock, her hand covering her mouth. Carlos wasn't doing much better. Jay swallowed.

Mal gently put a hand on her scars. "There's a reason I keep this covered up on the island, Ben," she said. "The people who live there recognize certain things, like Jafar's staff insignia and Cruella's signature fur coats. My mother- other than the horns, she's best known for something else." She paused and looked up at him. There was something in her eyes, behind the anger and frustration. Ben didn't recognize it immediately, because he wasn't used to dealing with such raw emotion. In Auradon, Ben dealt with happier people, who didn't have such messed up lives.

Mal lowered her arms. "My mother can still transform. You do remember the end of the story, right? At the castle?"

Aurora looked confused. Mal noticed her and remembered to lift the small curse on her. Her mouth immediately popped open. "Of course, I remember the end of the story. I was there, remember? Your mother returns and she- she-" Aurora connected the dots. "Oh my-"

"What is it?" Leah asked. "What's wrong?"

Aurora's hands started to shake. "Maleficent turns into the dragon."

Ben's eyes widened. He reached for Mal's arms again, and she reluctantly let him take her hands. He studied her arms again, tracing the sharp lines. "She bit you?" he asked, slowly.

Mal shrugged, trying to play it off. "She used to, when I was being especially… difficult. She hasn't in a few years."

Evie finally came out of shock. "Mal!" she screamed. "Why didn't you tell anyone? If she only stopped a few years ago, that means that we knew you while she was still hurting you, right?" When Mal didn't respond, Evie repeated herself. "Right?"

Mal spun to look at her best friend. "So what? You wouldn't have cared, not then! You had your own problems!"

Jay stepped in between them, obscuring their view of each other before things got bad. "Mal," he said, giving her a warning look. Mal took a deep breath and started to roll her sleeves back down. She turned back to Ben and met his look of concern. "What?" she asked touchily. She quickly waved her hand over her arm again, and the scars vanished under a layer of magic.

Mal eyed Ben as he processed all this information. "Ben." He didn't respond. "Ben," she said, a bit louder. He finally looked at her. "Do you know why our parents let us come here? Why they let us come to the school of Jasmine, and Aurora, and Snow White? You didn't think it was out of the kindness of their hearts, did you?"

Ben looked lost. "I- I had hoped that they had changed. That you wouldn't be the same."

"We aren't!" Evie cried out, hurriedly. "We aren't the same as our parents!"

"But old habits die hard," Adam interjected in his rich, deep voice. "What were you sent here for?"

The forlorn group looked up at him. Then, slowly, Mal looked pointedly at the Fairy Godmother. She didn't say anything, but let the crowd figure it out.

The Fairy Godmother was the first to realize what she meant. "Oh!" she exclaimed. She took an involuntary step back, the hand holding her wand creeping behind her back.

Belle was next. Her eyes widened, and she leaned up to whisper something in her husband's ear. Adam squinted, then understood what she said. His eyes widened, then hardened.

Aurora and her mother understood in the same instant. Aurora let out an ear-piercing scream. Her mother grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back, away from the misfits. "They were going to steal the Fairy Godmother's wand!" she announced in horror.

The entire crowd gasped as one. There was a short silence, and Mal rolled her eyes. Then everyone let out their breath in a cacophony of screams and shouts. The students that had gathered around them took a huge step back, looks of absolute terror in their eyes.

Mal scoffed at them. "Honestly, if we were really going to do it, do you think we would have told you about it?"

Evie put a tentative hand on Mal's shoulder and stepped forward to whisper in her ear. "Mal, calm down. We'll talk about this later, but you need to stop talking."

She turned her head to look at Evie, and saw Carlos watching her worriedly. Even Jay's face was darker than usual. Dude barked cheerfully, back in Carlos's arms.

Mal took a breath and clenched her fists at her sides. She locked eyes with the king and smiled sarcastically, obviously still extremely annoyed. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Adam," she said. "I'll just go pack my things and get out of here." She spun on her heel and stomped away.

Ben cried after her, but this time she didn't stop. Evie tripped over her feet, simultaneously trying to apologize on Mal's half and run after her. She glanced at Doug, who was standing in the back, and she couldn't hold his gaze for more than a few seconds before turning away. Jay jogged after them, and Carlos was quick to follow, desperate to get out of the emotionally-charged situation Mal had created.

There was a silence, disrupted only by Audrey's heavy breathing and whimpering coming from Chad's direction. Ben was frozen, his eyes riveted on the retreating figures exiting the garden.

Adam stepped forward, Belle clinging to his hand. "Ben," he began.

Ben turned to him. "No, Dad, I know what you're going to say," he interrupted. "And no."

Adam huffed. "How could you know what I'm going to say?"

"Because I know you. And you're going to insist that they leave."

"And for good reason!" Adam said indignantly. "Mal practically just confessed to conspiring against the crown, son. She's lucky I don't throw her in the dungeon, along with the rest of her friends."

"But it's not her fault!" Ben protested.

"Does that matter?" Leah interjected. "It may be because of who raised her, but it doesn't change the fact that she's trying to destroy what we've built here. She's a criminal!"

Ben gritted his teeth, but before he could reply, he heard a softer voice say, "Have they done anything yet?"

Ben turned to see Doug in the back, his head bowed slightly. His hands were nervously tugging on his jacket, but he raised his voice. "Have they stolen anything yet?"

Adam paused. "Well, no, but that doesn't mean that they won't."

Ben nodded appreciatively to Doug. "Dad, if they were going to steal something, why would they tell us beforehand?"

"They're trying to trick us, obviously," Leah answered. "If they tell us beforehand, they know that we'll be kind to them and appreciate that they told us instead of actually stealing anything, so our guard will be down and it will be easier for them to take it."

Audrey's eyes widened as if her mother had just had a brilliant idea. "But what if that's what they want us to think?" she asked.

Leah frowned. "Why would they want that?"

"Because then," Audrey said slowly, "we would put them in the dungeon. What if that's what they want? What if they have some evil plan to use the dungeon as a way to get the wand?"

Leah nodded seriously. "But what if _that_ is what they want us to think? Their parents have probably trained them in the art of reverse psychology. It is a dastardly art that-"

"Oh please," Ben finally interrupted. He and his parents had been watching in disbelief as the mother and daughter slowly spiralled into absolute ridiculousness. "You're both acting like they're master criminals. Do you seriously think that they would go through all that when they could just take it without all the extra intrigue?"

Leah raised her eyebrow. "They're the children of master criminals, Ben. Why should the young ones be any different?"

Adam stepped forward before Ben got too worked up. "Queen Leah, please," he said, putting a restraining hand on Ben's shoulder. "We don't need any more drama. And Ben," he continued, raising his voice over Ben's attempt to say something. "Please, just consider the idea that these children aren't just innocent bystanders. They were raised by some very evil people, and-"

"No, Dad," Ben said stubbornly. "They aren't like their parents."

"Ben, dear," Belle said soothingly. "You can't know that for sure."

"I can, Mom," Ben insisted. "I do. Have any of you gotten to know them like I have?" He made eye contact with Doug, who was stepping up to say something. Ben subtly shook his head and narrowed his eyes, and Doug gulped and stepped back again, swallowing his words. The students and parents began slowly filtering away as it became obvious that this was about to become a very personal argument within the ruling family.

Adam took a moment to collect his thoughts. "Ben, listen to me. I have been in similar situations, and, no matter how badly you want to believe otherwise, you can't afford to always think the best of people, especially when they've been put in such a… difficult situation."

Ben threw up his hands. "You don't get it, Dad!"

"No, I do get it!" Adam thundered. Ben shrank back a little. His father rarely shouted or let his anger get out of control, because, despite his best efforts, a spark of Beast still shone in his eyes when his ire was raised. "I have ruled this kingdom for many years, and I have encountered more than you can even imagine. I have tried to be kind to these people before, and it did not work." He was pacing and waving his hands animatedly, Belle standing silently behind him. "I hate to be so…"

"Controlling?" Ben offered sarcastically.

"Strict," Adam corrected with a glare. "But we can't afford to be wrong about this."

"Then trust me!" Ben cried. "I'm not some naive teenager who's been seduced to the other side. I know them. They're not like their parents."

"They're too unreliable," Adam insisted. "It's not safe to trust them when they could cause so much destruction. No one in their right mind would do so."

"Mom did."

There was a deadly silence. Adam froze, then turned slowly toward his son. "What did you say?" he growled.

Ben steeled his nerves. "Mom did," he repeated. "She was warned away from you by the entire village, by her father, by Gaston. But she took a chance on you."

Adam said nothing.

"Just have some faith in me, Dad," Ben pleaded. "I know what I'm doing. They are trustworthy, they just don't know how life works here yet. Give them a chance. Please."

Belle stepped forward and rested a hand lightly on her husband's arm. "He's right, darling," she said quietly. "But it's your decision."

Adam was breathing deeply, studying Ben intensely. After a few seconds, he asked, "You're absolutely sure, Ben? You have no doubt in your mind? You are willing to stake the lives of this entire kingdom on the offspring of our mortal enemies?"

Ben nodded without hesitation.

There was a tense silence, then Adam sighed. "Very well. They shall stay. But," he said before Ben could begin to talk, "They had better behave themselves. They give me a single reason to believe that they are not as benevolent as you make them out to be, and they are gone."

Ben nodded, a smile breaking out on his face. "Thank you, Father!" And he took off through the now empty garden, all the partygoers suddenly disappeared.

Belle slipped her arm around Adam's as he watched Ben go. "I hope he knows what he is doing," he muttered.

Belle smiled slightly. "I trust him. We raised him to make decisions like this."

"That's true, but he's still so young."

"He has to start eventually, doesn't he?"

And the royal couple made their way back to the castle, silently praying that they had not made the wrong decision.

 **Edit: Someone pointed out that the story doesn't make total sense unless the names Audrey and Aurora are switched around a bit, so I looked and lo and behold, they were right, I accidentally called Aurora Audrey like twenty times. So I think I fixed all of those. Hopefully this makes a bit more sense now.**


End file.
